November 6, 2019 – Minutes

Proposed Agenda for Nov. 6, 2019 SCC Meeting

Agenda items:

• Approve last month’s minutes and review action items

Approved

• Safety concerns from council. The district is looking for parent input about what the top concerns are in order to address it.

All agreed Drop off and Pick up concerns are the largest safety concern at Silver Mesa.  Issues on 1700 East with traffic not following laws and some close calls for the crossing guards.  Additional concerns with parent behavior in the drop off lane (speed, phone use, not pulling forward, dropping off in the parking lot, turning left).  Police presence helps to enforce better behavior.  Group discussed observation that parent presence helps, specifically male, in getting compliance with rules.  Discussion lead to the national program “Watch Dawgs” or bringing back “FOSM” (Fathers of Silver Mesa) program.  In summary the council didn’t feel that the proprietary program “Watch Dawgs” was needing further discussion, as it requires an investment (Funding) for the program, and FOSM had been successful at Silver Mesa in the past.  Further discussion would be brought up with the PTA and the SCC in future meetings to discuss what role each organization would take if a program was to be needed.  Ms. Fielding will report our findings to the district, as requested, as well as our SCC monthly letter would address this issue (James to write and submit).

• Cell Tower money Allocation ($2,625.49)
  1. School Sprit Reinforcers
  2. Headphones for students

Approved 100% funding for School sprit reinforcers.  Discussed use of other funds for computer or tech items and to remove item “b”.  Group unanimously agreed with the need for a positive environment.  Julie will update the group as funds are used. 

• Final Report is on the School Landtrust website for last year’s spending.

Final report was submitted but as of the meeting had not gone public on http://www.schoollandtrust.org/

• Website updating

The district is changing the platform for the website.  They are moving away from Joomla and going to WordPress. Amy Sandgren is tasked with the migration for Silver Mesa.  SCC members offered assistance.

• Digital Citizenship: Is enough being done?  Is student education robust enough?  Do parents have enough info?

SCC felt the school filtering software was working.  There is always a desire for more information, but district and school were providing enough.

• School happenings
  1. School Goal: 83% Reading; 80% Math; Focus: SCD, Dyad reading, Moring Meetings, and Second Steps (Social Emotional Learning program)
  2. Emergency Drills, Lockdown last month, bomb threat this month—DIR-S practice
  3. Dreambox training today for teachers
  4. Additional training on Structured Classroom Discussion next week in IPLCs

Discussed challenges with data specifically 2017 ELL 0% vs 13% and 15/16 in ACC. (THIS NEEDS HELP- you had lots of data and I didn’t take notes)

Newsletter discussion and plan-

The options of topics we proposed-

Attendance and the science behind academies and even a few absences.  Spring may be the opportune time to talk about absents and tardiness? Mark has some data that can help support this article

Acronyms- To start a list of academic acronyms for parents, it may be most useful in a month with back to school night?

Idle free and the costs- James brought this topic for a future topic.  If data was available regarding the costs of idling in addition to unnecessary pollution of the air.  With inversion season coming up in the next few months, this could be a good future topic.

Dropoff safety- A quick article about the volunteering that Clair does, the need for his replacement next year, and issues that have been getting brought to the school from the community? (James will put together a draft ASAP